Search (UI)
The search control and the results behind it — where people go when they know what they want and cannot find it.
Search is used by people who have already failed to find something by browsing, which makes its results a direct readout of where the information architecture is failing. The query log is the cheapest research a product has: repeated terms that return nothing name the features people expect and the words they use for the ones you have.
The field itself is nearly free to get right — visible, wide enough to show a typical query, with the term preserved on the results page so it can be edited rather than retyped. The results are where the work is: matching that tolerates typos and partial words, ranking that puts exact matches first, scope that is clear (this project or everything), and a no-results state that suggests something instead of ending the conversation.
In practice
A documentation site's search required exact matches. “sso” returned nothing, because every page said “single sign-on”. It was the third most common query. Adding synonyms for a dozen such pairs cut support tickets about SSO setup by about 40% in a month, with no new documentation written.
Where teams get it wrong
- Exact-match-only search, so a near miss returns nothing.
- Losing the query on the results page, forcing a retype to refine.
- No-results states with no suggestion, spelling correction or route to browse.
- Unclear scope — people cannot tell whether they searched this project or everything.
- Never reading the query log, which is free evidence about the IA.
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Related terms
All terms- Filter (UI)Controls that narrow a set of records — and the much harder job of keeping what was narrowed visible.
- ComboboxA text input joined to a filtered list — for choosing from more options than anyone should have to scroll through.
- Information ArchitectureThe structure of a product's content and navigation — how things are grouped, labelled and related so people can find what they need.
- Empty StateWhat a screen shows when it has no content yet — the first screen every new account sees, and usually the last one anybody designs.